Journalist, Famous Poet and U.S. Army officer during the Civil War

Civil War Date Document Signed

(1826-1904) Born near Penn Yan, New York, he moved with his parents to Ohio in 1840. He studied law with Thomas Corwin, was admitted to the bar in 1856, and practiced in Cincinnati as a partner of Thomas Spooner. However, a few years earlier, he had written a poem titled, "Rain on the Roof," which first appeared in the Cincinnati Great West. Its extraordinary merit was instantly recognized and the seeds of a literary pursuit had been sown in Kinney's heart. He gave up the law and became editor of The West Liberty Banner. He later became editor of a literary magazine called the Genius of the West. When the Civil War broke out he was elected captain of a company that was raised in Greene County, but before he could be mustered in, President Lincoln, through the recommendation of Salmon P. Chase, appointed Kinney, Major & Paymaster, U.S. Army. He was commissioned on June 1, 1861, and he served throughout the war being mustered out of service on November 15, 1865, with the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel. After the war he became owner and editor of the Xenia Torchlight, and was subsequently the editor of the Cincinnati Times, and he also wrote for the Ohio State Journal. He later became owner and editor of the Springfield Globe Republic. He was elected as a delegate of the Republican National Convention in Chicago that nominated Ulysses S. Grant for president, and served as the Ohio State Secretary for the convention. He served as an Ohio State Senator, 1882-83. Kinney's career in civil and military life entitles him to the high rank that Ohio has given him among her distinguished sons. His attainments as a classical student, critic and thinker, exhibited by his strong, clear writings in prose, and his eloquent speeches, give him a high position among American scholars, writers and orators. But his reputation rests mainly on his extraordinary originality as a poet. His "Rain on the Roof," "Emma Stuart," "End of the Rainbow," "Discontent," "Threnody," belong to popular literature. A volume titled, "Lyrics of the Ideal and the Real," contain some of his best productions. Source: Dictionary of American Biography.

Civil War Date Document Signed: 8 x 3, imprinted check with female figure holding sword and shield, filled out in ink.

Cincinnati, Ohio, Octr. 15, 1864. Third National Bank of Cincinnati, Designated Depositary of the U.S. Pay to W.H. Scott, Jr., or bearer, One Hundred & Twenty seven and 30/100 Dollars. $127.30. Coates Kinney, Paymaster, U.S.A. Small punch hole cancellation at the center. Very fine.